


Domestic Magic

by twtd



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017), The Worst Witch - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Mild Horror, Self-Sacrifice, Semi-sentient house, but also cute domesticity, dubious use of Old English, it's a weird balance, property law and estate planning come back to haunt me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-08-30 03:49:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16757098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twtd/pseuds/twtd
Summary: Pippa inherits the Pentangle Estate from her great aunt. Little problem: there's a spell on the house that says the owner has to be married. Enter Hecate and her need to sacrifice herself for Pippa."Well," Hecate said carefully, "It appears to me you actually have three problems." She and Pippa were having their regular Thursday evening get together. A long-abandoned deck of cards sat on the coffee table between. At this point, the cards and chess set were merely a thin worn excuse for them to spend time together. They had barely played a hand before Pippa's dilemma derailed them entirely."Well, that's in no way encouraging." Pippa sank further into her seat and held her head up with her free hand. "What are my three problems?"





	1. Part I

**Author's Note:**

> I'm only guessing that this story will have three parts. It's already taken a major turn that I didn't plan. But my outline says 3 parts, so that's what I'm going with.
> 
> This has been super fun to write so far! Enjoy!

Pippa stepped into the large house, properly her house now, her estate really, when the surrounding lands were included, and paused at the threshold. Something was different. She had grown up in the house, run through the corridors, had birthday parties in the gardens, cried over all of her heartaches, Hecate's abandonment and her parents' deaths. As far back as she could remember, this house had always felt like home. Oh, she lived at Pentangle's for much of the year now, even over the breaks, but she still visited and she had felt welcome every time. But something felt off that day. There was a general feeling of uneasiness permeating the air around her. She shivered against it. Still, she was sure it was nothing. She needed to focus. She had business here today. 

Pippa never really thought about how the house properly belonged to her great aunt. Bramble Hall. It had been in the family for generations upon generations and it would stay in the family for at least another generation. That was what Pippa anticipated her great uncle's solicitor would be telling her that afternoon. She couldn't fathom Aunt Hilda leaving the house to anyone but her. Still, there was always the possibility for surprise. Maybe that was why she felt unsettled. 

She pushed through the door to what was once upon a time her father's study. Mr. Warrington had unsurprisingly managed to beat her there and turned in his seat. 

"Well met, Miss Pentangle," he said as he stood. 

"Mr. Warrington." Pippa raised her hand against her forehead with the same elegance she always possessed.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Mr. Warrington pulled his chair a bit closer to the desk as he sat down. Pippa walked around it and took her father's seat. Her own study, her own desk, was back at Pentangle's. This would always be her father's. She supposed if she had ever married, her spouse might have used it. As it was, it got dusted with the rest of the house by the service that came in once a week and otherwise remained the same. She knew she didn't look like a child sitting there, she knew the image she projected, but she still felt adolescent. 

"Thank you. It didn't come as a surprise. She was well over one hundred and hadn't been doing well lately, but it is good to hear." Pippa half smiled. "Now, what did you want to speak to me about?"

"Well, it's about the will. I believe you already know the broad strokes. As she had no children and you're the eldest of your mother's children, the house is yours, of course. She left the cottage to a nephew on her late husband's side. The money is all going to various charities."

"None of that comes as a surprise." Pippa folded her hands together on top of the desk. "But you could have told me all of that via mirror."

"Ah, yes." He shifted in his chair and pulled a weathered-looking book from what looked like thin air. "Hilda wanted me to deliver this to you personally." He held the large, heavy, leather-bound book out to Pippa. She reached across the desk and took it. As soon as she did, the feeling of unease that had plagued her since she entered the house multiplied tenfold. A wave of nausea rolled through her. She breathed through it before she ran her fingers over the ornate patterns embossed on the cover. 

"The Pentangle Grimoire." Pippa opened the front cover and looked at the first page. It was in a language she only vaguely understood. As she carefully turned the pages, the spells became more familiar. "Thank you." As it would have been quite the problem if it had gotten lost in the post, Pippa was grateful for the personal delivery. 

"You'll want to refresh the protective spells around the property, of course. And Mrs. Pentangle said you would want to pay particular attention to the spell on the fifty-third page."

"Of course," Pippa said absently as she opened the book to the referenced page. There was a piece of paper stuck between the pages. She set it aside while she put her reading glasses on and looked at the spell itself. Greek. She didn't read Greek, but it shouldn't be too hard to find someone who did. She could simply ask Hecate. Pippa was sure she remembered Hecate mentioning that she studied spell-casting Greek in university. Pippa turned to the paper. It was written in Sunt Hilda's hand. It was slightly hard to decipher but she got the gist. 

Pippa looked up at Mr. Warrington. "Is this true?" She handed the paper to him. He read through it slowly. 

"I have no way of knowing. I can tell you it's definitely her handwriting, but we both know there are multiple spells to confirm that. As to the contents, all I can say is that Mrs. Pentangle believed it to be true."

Pippa exhaled and sank back into her chair. "Damn."

"Indeed. It seems you have a problem."

* * *

"So you see my problem." Pippa picked up her glass of brandy and took a sip. 

"Well," Hecate said carefully, "It appears to me you actually have three problems." She and Pippa were having their regular Thursday evening get together. A long-abandoned deck of cards sat on the coffee table between. At this point, the cards and chess set were merely a thin worn excuse for them to spend time together. They had barely played a hand before Pippa's dilemma derailed them entirely. 

"Well, that's in no way encouraging." Pippa sank further into her seat and held her head up with her free hand. "What are my three problems?"

"First, you need to reset the protection spells around the estate and you need to do it sooner rather than later. To do that, you must necessarily spend some amount of time at the house. Obviously, you can't spend time at the house while your meddling great-great-etcetera-grandmother's spell is still in effect. That leads to your second and third problems. You need to translate the spell and you need to find a way to break it that won't bring the house down on your head." Hecate took a sip of her own brandy. 

"That was thoroughly depressing. Thank you, Hiccup." Pippa put her brandy down as she stood up and walked over to one of Hecate's windows. She looked out over Cackle's grounds. "I suppose I could just leave the current spells in whatever state they're in and hope for the best until I figure out a solution to those second two problems." It wasn't her preferred solution, but it might be the best she could do. Stupid. It was so stupid and archaic. It didn't matter what sort of libertine her long-dead however many greats grandmother might have been. It was a hell of an ultimatum: marry or you can't have the estate, and with a spell to back it up. And as the first unmarried Pentangle to inherit the house in generations, Pippa was stuck with the consequences. 

Hecate joined Pippa at the window. She hovered her hand over Pippa's shoulder before bringing it down lightly. "Perhaps the spell won't be difficult to translate. Why don't you leave the grimoire with me and I'll see if I can make any progress on the translation."

Pippa sighed in relief. "Would you? Would you mind terribly? I know final exams are about to begin." She looked up at Hecate. 

"What else am I to do with my free time?" Hecate asked as she smiled faintly. She squeezed Pippa's shoulder. "I'll let you know of any progress when we meet at Pentangle's next week." 

"Thank you, Hecate." Pippa turned where she was facing Hecate. She stepped in for a hug. "I don't know what I would do without you."

* * *

Hecate hated greek. She'd only studied it because Miss Broomhead had insisted she be fluent in all of the major spellcasting languages before she finished her education. She much preferred Latin or Old English. Even runes would be better. Outside of Greece itself, Greek was the language of 18th-century dilettantes, nothing more than a passing fad. Yet, it didn't matter how much she disliked the language, it was the one the spell was written in and thus the one she had to work with. Complaining about it would just take energy she could use to do something worthwhile.

The first step was creating a copy of the spell she could annotate. She couldn't very well scratch notes in the Pentangle Family Grimoire. Of course, the grimoire had its own sets of enchantments protecting it which meant copying the spell by hand. It was tedious work that she could only focus on after the girls had gone to bed for the night. Still, Hecate persisted. Whenever the Greek got to be too frustrating, she would turn to other pages in the book, other spells. She wondered if Pippa knew exactly how involved some of the protection spells around the estate were. At least one would take daily tending for a month. She would have to point it out when they next met. For now, she kept copying the spell onto parchment as she pulled together a list of reference books she would need.

* * *

"So if I'm going to set the spell this year, it needs to be this summer," Pippa said as she paced through her office. 

"It looks that way, yes," Hecate replied. She sat in a chair in Pippa's office. Hecate had come a bit earlier that night as they had much to go over, and Pippa had still been working when she arrived. The office wasn't as cozy as Pippa's rooms, but it was still overwhelmingly Pippa: Danish modern furniture in a Romantic setting that shouldn't work yet somehow did. Light streamed in through the banks of windows and at least the chairs were comfortable. Still, she preferred the coziness of Cackle's. 

Pippa sighed as she sat at her desk. "They're already talking about a ghost house down in the village." She rubbed her forehead in worry. "You're sure I have to be there the entire time?" 

"You can read the spell just as well as I can." Hecate opened the book to the page she had marked and placed it in front of Pippa. Pippa put on her reading glasses and took her time looking at the page. This spell was in English. There would be no misunderstanding it. The major protection spell did, indeed, require that she stay at the estate for the cycle of a moon. That didn't take into account the other spells she would need to do while she was there. There were potions to brew and chants to sing. When she had first looked over the grimoire, she hadn't realized the extent of the spellwork that kept the house safe and hidden. It was going to take ages. She had the time over the summer, but not if she couldn't stay at the house. 

"Oh, Hecate, what am I supposed to do?" Pippa sat back in her chair nearly admitting defeat. "I can't stay at the house because of that stupid marriage spell, but I have to stay there to cast all of the other spells. I'll get in trouble with the Magic Council if the invisibility spell fails and suddenly the Ordinaries can see the estate. How long is it going to take you to translate the marriage spell?" 

"At least a few weeks. Every word I've translated so far changes the meaning of the words I've translated before. It is… frustrating to say the least."

"And then we still have to find a way to undo it." The grimoire made a satisfying thwack when she closed it. "I feel like I'm running around in circles with no way out."

Hecate pursed her lips, started to say something, then pursed them again. "I may have a temporary way around your dilemma. It would, at least, buy us some time to figure all of this out."

"Well, I'm all ears," Pippa said. "I'd try anything to get out of this mess."

Hecate took a deep breath. "We could… that is to say, you could… I understand this is not an ideal solution."

Pippa took off her glasses. "How bad could it possibly be. I don't have to sacrifice a golden calf or something, do I?" 

"Not as such, no, though there would be sacrifice involved. You… well, you could get married." 

"I've already thought of that, but it isn't like I've got someone around to offer." Hecate was right, it would solve the immediate problem and allow them time to disentangle the marriage spell, but a marriage required two willing participants and she only had herself. Even in this situation, she couldn't bring herself to marry just anyone. 

"What I'm saying is, you could marry me." Hecate shifted uncomfortably. Pippa's eyes went wide.

"Really?" Pippa was still looking at Hecate as if she had grown a second head, but there was a spark of hope in her voice. 

"It solves your problem, does it not?" Hecate asked. "We can marry now, which should appease the spell keeping you from your home, and once we've discovered a way to disable it, we can get the marriage annulled or divorce." 

"You would do that for me?" Pippa knew that it wasn't a simple favor. How could it be? Marriage. To Hecate no less. Somehow, it didn't seem that distasteful a proposition. 

"I have offered, haven't I?" Hecate sat up straighter. 

"Then I suppose that settles it."

* * *

"Married? Oh, that's delightful." Ada clasped her hands together. 

"It is… a useful, and I assure you temporary, arrangement," Hecate said. She was sitting in one of the chairs by Ada's fire as they shared a cup of tea. "Still, I imagine there is paperwork to complete, even if it will just be for the summer."

"Only you, Hecate Hardbroom, would go into a marriage," Ada held up a forestalling hand, "even a temporary one, thinking of the paperwork." 

"Am I wrong?" Hecate asked. She knew she wasn't. She had already looked up everything that needed to be done. 

"Of course you aren't." Ada got up and went to a filing cabinet. It only took her a moment to find the correct forms. Truly, she had thought she would need them for Miss Bat and Mr. Rowan-Webb before she needed them for Hecate. She handed the papers over. "Just, whenever you get them done will be fine." She would be surprised if it took Hecate more than two days to complete them, and that long only because she would require input from Miss Pentangle before she could finish them. 

"You know you're entitled to larger quarters if you want them," Ada pointed out.

"That won't be necessary." Hecate put her teacup down. "There was something else I needed… wanted… to discuss with you."

Ada smiled kindly. "Well, whatever it is, I'm sure you needn't look so nervous."

"You know you're one of my dearest friends." Only her relationship with Pippa had started earlier and it had a thirty-year gap in the middle. 

"Yes, go on," Ada encouraged. 

"We would like witnesses for the handfasting. I was hoping…" Hecate sat up straighter as if bracing herself for rejection. 

"I'd be happy to do it," Ada broke in before Hecate could get any more uncomfortable. 

"Thank you," Hecate deflated in relief.

* * *

"Do you think we need to do anything?" Pippa said as she stared up at her front door. They had arrived at Bramble Hall after flying in from Pentangle's and breached the outer gate before Pippa came to a stop.

"And what, pray tell, do you think we might need to do?" Hecate asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, I don't know," Pippa huffed. "It was just a thought." She rolled her eyes at Hecate. Without further preamble, she stepped up to the door, opened it, and went inside. She braced herself against something unexpected happening but nothing did. However, the overwhelming feeling of nausea and wrongness she had experienced the last time she visited was gone. It still didn't have the feeling she associated with home, but perhaps that was simply due to the circumstances. Pippa supposed the lack of feeling was the result they were after and tried not to worry about it. 

Hecate followed Pippa inside. She had been to the estate previously when she and Pippa had been girls, but she looked at it now through an adult's eyes. Pippa's penchant for large windows and natural light that was so easily seen at Pentangle's made sense considering she grew up surrounded by it. 

"It's Jacobean," Pippa said when she saw Hecate looking around. "Built in, oh, 1624 or thereabouts. I've no idea when or where it got the name. Let's find you a bedroom." She reached out and caught Hecate's hand, pulling her through the house and up the grand staircase. Hecate didn't understand why they didn't just transfer but she went along with Pippa anyway. Better to learn her way around the place where she would be spending her summer. 

"This one, I think," Pippa said as she stopped in front of a door. "I'm just across the hall." She motioned with her head as she opened the door to the bedroom. They walked into the master suite. 

"That isn't right." Pippa looked around, stepped out of the room and looked down the hallway to the doors of the master suite. Then she popped her head back into the room. It was still the same.

"What's wrong?" Hecate was perplexed by Pippa's movements. 

"Would you come out here a moment?" Pippa held her hand out to Hecate. Hecate took it and let Pippa pull her from the room. Pippa walked down a door and opened it. It was the master suite once again. Hecate started to recognize the problem. 

"I'll stay here. You try the next door down." Hecate looked around the room curiously. 

"Right." Pippa left the room and closed the door. It opened again a few moments later. "Well, that didn't work. Let's try my room. Maybe it won't have gotten caught up in this nonsense." 

They both left the room, this time through the proper doors to the master suite. Pippa rolled her eyes and stalked down the hallway. She threw open the door to her room, made a frustrated noise, walked in, and walked back out through the master suite doors once again. 

"Oh, this is ridiculous." Pippa looked around in frustration. 

"Indeed." Hecate was merely standing in the middle of the hallway impassively. "It seems the house has an opinion on where we sleep."

"It's a house! It shouldn't have an opinion on anything." Pippa turned and walked back into the one bedroom they could access. Hecate turned and followed her in. "Why aren't you more upset by this?" 

"Well, this is hardly the first unusual thing associated with this house, is it?" Hecate asked. "That a spell to force a marriage also comes with a spell to force the sharing of a marriage bed does not seem so unusual." 

Pippa sighed. "I suppose you're right. Do you think this is all part of the original spell? Or have we another project to tackle?" 

"There's no way to know until I've finished the translation." Hecate reached out a steadying hand to Pippa. 

"Since we're both to be sleeping here, we should unpack." Pippa twirled her hand to make their bags appear but nothing happened. "Oh, what now?"

Hecate opened one of the wardrobe doors. "I don't think that's going to be necessary. It appears we've already been moved in." She opened the other door. "In fact, if I were to go back to Cackle's, I don't think I would find that any of my clothing remains there. Your house is not subtle." 

Pippa went over to the other wardrobe and opened it. All of her clothing was there as well. "Not subtle at all, apparently." 

"Perhaps that's where you got it from." Hecate gave Pippa a sly smile.

"Hey! You're not exactly subtle yourself with your dramatic entrances and those ridiculous collars on your dresses." Pippa wondered if she'd gone too far with her poke at Hecate's clothing, but Hecate seemed to be taking it in stride if they way she was rolling her eyes was anything to go by. She'd mention those damned belts too, but you just didn't talk to your friends about their apparent leather fetishes. Still, she would like to see Hecate in nothing but that belt and maybe some stockings. Goddess where did that thought come from? She normally managed to keep her more prurient thoughts about her best friend on a shorter leash than that. Still, they were so careful with each other that Pippa sometimes forgot that Hecate was no longer the insecure girl she was in school and that she has grown up to be quite comfortable in her own skin. They both had. 

"You may have a point," Hecate said dryly. She closed the wardrobe doors and turned back to the room. "I suppose we should be grateful that the bed isn't smaller." 

Pippa spun around to look at the bed as if it might have changed just because Hecate said something. She evaluated it critically but it didn’t seem to have changed since her parents slept there. It looked a lot like her bed at Pentangle's now that she thought about it. She exhaled in relief. 

"Maybe we should go downstairs. I thought you might want to set up in my father's old study. The lighting in there is best." Maybe if she stopped thinking about how the house was conspiring against her, she would feel less unsettled. 

"Wherever you want to put me is fine," Hecate said as she followed Pippa out of the bedroom and back downstairs.

* * *

"Here we are." Pippa brought up the lights in her father's study. "You can use anything, really."

Hecate followed Pippa in and walked around the desk, pulling her notes out and placing them in the center. Hecate already felt at home in the office. It was set up much like her own office at Cackle's, for all that the windows were bigger and more numerous. Still, the light was warm and there were lamps in all the right places. She sat and the chair already seemed molded to her body. 

"Is it to your liking?" Pippa asked. 

"It's… perfect." That gave Hecate pause. Was it perhaps a bit too perfect? It was a clever spell they were up against. It didn't bode well for dismantling it. She started to spread out her papers. She pulled a few books from the air and stacked them off to the side. "Shall I get started or…?"

"Oh, no, I'll just let you… I need to start setting up my own spells." Hecate nearly tilted her face up for a kiss goodbye before realizing what she was doing. She looked resolutely down at the desk instead. Pippa hesitated slightly before shaking her head and stepping back. "Good luck," she said before she turned and left Hecate to her studies.

* * *

"The land is cursed," Hecate said as she stepped into the kitchen.

"Is it really going that badly?" Pippa asked as she put dinner onto the table. 

"That was not hyperbole." Hecate wanted to take Pippa into her arms but she knew that it would be inappropriate. She didn't know where the desire to act on feelings she had long repressed was suddenly coming from. It was no matter though. They had more important tasks to focus on. 

"It's from around the time of Æthelbehrt, likely done as a reaction to the coming of Christianity. They wanted to protect a sacred space. Then the Normans came in and built a house on top of it. It's further complicated by the fact that the original house was torn down in favor of what stands here now." Hecate shot Pippa a look as if she, herself, built both the first house and the current one. "The curse was never fully lifted. I suspect that when the Ordinaries started to avoid the area, the local witches and wizards moved in. The curse worked in their favor, so they merely found ways around it rather than returning the land to its previous state."

Pippa sat down and started to rub her forehead. "And that's why the protection spells are so complicated."

"Indeed." Hecate sat down. "It also means taking down the marriage spell is going to be that much harder. With so much old magic concentrated in one place, there's no telling what would happen if we broke the curse now." 

Pippa slumped back in her seat. "This is giving me a headache. What do we do?" 

"Now, we eat dinner. Tomorrow, I go through your library in hopes that one of your ancestors had some respect for the local history and wrote something down about the curse. I am not hopeful. When that doesn't work, I shall go to Weirdsisters' and look through their library for something that might shed some light on land curses from the late 500s."

Pippa rolled her eyes at Hecate's insults to her Norman ancestors. They were old hat by now. "As long as you have a plan," she said indulgently before she started putting food on her plate.

* * *

Pippa was sitting up in bed reading when Hecate finally dragged herself away from her translation and into their shared bedroom. 

"I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to give up for the night." Pippa took off her reading glasses and set them and her book on her nightstand. 

"I didn't mean to keep you up," Hecate said weariness evident in her voice. She walked over to her wardrobe, pulled out her nightgown and magicked herself into it before she sat at what had to have been Pippa's mother's vanity to remove the pins from her hair. 

"Funny, I always thought you would do that with magic." Pippa didn't bother to hide that she was watching Hecate.

"Hmm?" Hecate hummed as she turned to look over her shoulder at Pippa. 

"Your hair," Pippa clarified. "I assumed…" Hecate had started to keep her hair up long after they had ceased being friends. 

"I do when I'm particularly fatigued but I've come to appreciate the ritual," Hecate said she as turned back to the mirror and continued to pull the pins out. Pippa stared on in curiosity. Hecate unwound the plait then unbraided it. Finally, she took a brush near at hand and started to brush it out. Pippa longed to get up and start brushing Hecate's hair for her. It looked so soft from this distance. 

"How did the translating go? Or needn't I ask?" Pippa needed to distract herself from her wayward thoughts. 

"I've gotten through roughly the first half. I assume the second half will change the meaning of the entire thing and I'll have to go over it all again, but it does feel like I've made some progress." Hecate moved on from brushing her hair to doing the small braids she put in it to keep it from her face at night. 

"Dare I say that almost sounds hopeful?" Pippa finally looked away as Hecate stood and walked over to the bed. Hecate pulled the covers down and slid in next to Pippa. Pippa carefully held herself to her side of the bed rather than give in to her impulse to curl against Hecate's side. 

"It is progress," Hecate said. "How are the protection spells coming along?"

"Better now that I know why some of them are structured the way they are. It would be so much faster if I could just use modern magic but…" Pippa shrugged. 

"But you risk blowing the top off the hill if you try it." Hecate dimmed the light on her nightstand. 

"Unfortunately." Pippa hated to have to admit it but sometimes the old ways, in this case, the very old ways, were necessary. Pippa dimmed her own light. Somehow lying next to Hecate in the dark made it that much more difficult not to reach out for her. 

They laid in silence for several minutes before Pippa said, "Hecate…"

"Yes," came the sleepy reply. 

"Thank you again for doing this for me. All of it. I don't know if I've said that yet." Pippa reached under the blankets until she felt Hecate's hand. As soon as they touched, Hecate opened her hand for Pippa's. 

"I have no regrets," Hecate replied.

"That's just the honeymoon phase talking."

"Go to sleep, Pippa." Hecate squeezed Pippa's hand before she closed her eyes. 

Pippa fell asleep with her hand still cradled in Hecate's.

* * *

Hecate slowly came awake as sunlight crept across her face. If sunrise was waking her, it was far too early to begin the day. She blinked against it and moved to roll over only to find her shoulder pinned to the bed. A quick glance down confirmed what she already knew. Pippa's head was resting on her shoulder. She shouldn't have been surprised, Pippa has always been the more tactile of the two of them. She could wake her, but then she would never be able to get back to sleep. Pippa was a morning person and she decidedly was not. Still, she wasn't going to get any more sleep with the sun shining on her eyes. She motioned with her hand and the curtains closed, but the movement disturbed Pippa enough that she snuffled against Hecate and moved a bit. Hecate really should have woken Pippa, or at least tried to disentangle herself, but she was feeling too selfish and too tired for that.

"Stop thinking," Pippa said, voice thick and still mostly asleep as she rolled onto her side. She had Hecate's hand in a vice grip so Hecate had no choice but roll with her. Hecate settled with her arm around Pippa's waist. She fell back asleep with her nose buried in Pippa's hair.

* * *

Pippa was stepping out of the bathroom wearing a robe and toweling her hair when Hecate woke up the second time. Hecate was disoriented by the sudden movement and she blinked several times while her brain tried to catch up to what was going on around her. 

"Did I wake you?" Pippa asked. "I was trying to let you sleep." Pippa sat on the edge of the bed nearest to Hecate and Hecate could see the upper slope of Pippa's breast under her robe from her position. She did her best not to stare, to keep her eyes on Pippa's face but somehow that was just as distracting. Hecate felt the sudden desperate need for some air. She sat up abruptly but couldn't swing her legs out of the bed because Pippa was in the way. 

"No, no," Hecate said. "I was already awake." Had they still been wrapped up in each other when Pippa woke up? It was more than likely. What had Pippa thought? Why hadn't Hecate considered that before she chose to go back to sleep? 

"Well, good," Pippa dropped her hand on top of Hecate's shin and rubbed it through the blankets. She finally got up, but her actions offered Hecate no respite from her dilemma. Pippa walked over to her wardrobe and easily slipped off her robe, leaving Hecate staring at the expanse of Pippa's back interrupted only by her bra and knickers. She leafed through several dresses before finding the one she wanted to wear and magicking it onto her body only moments before Hecate had a heart attack. This was not what she signed up for when she agreed to live with Pippa for the summer. Of course, that had been back when they thought they would have their own rooms. 

Hecate took a steadying breath and got out of bed. She walked into the bathroom hoping that Pippa wouldn't be around by the time she came out.

* * *

It was just after lunch when Hecate got on her broom to go to Weirdsisters'. Her search through Bramble Hall's library had come up empty. It was a pleasant early summer's day, not yet too hot, but it seemed with every passing mile Hecate became more and more unsettled. She tried to shake it off. Maybe she was just unfathomably nervous about her research, about the fact that she might not find anything useful and they'd be worse off than they had been when they'd started. 

She touched down outside the library and placed her broom on the rack designed for them. The stone building called to her like an old friend and she walked in determinedly. A quick conversation with a librarian later and she was on the third floor tucked into a back corner carefully leafing through parchments that only existed because of some very strong preservation spells. Her Old English was perhaps not what it used to be, but when she saw þyrnet along with a description of somewhere that had to be Pippa's estate, she knew she'd hit her mark. The spell was old and all the more powerful for it. It had seeped into the land, sealed itself in the fissures of the rock and the cells of the plant life. She imagined even the animals had been touched by it. There was no telling what it had done to the generations of people who had lived on top of it. It confirmed Hecate's suspicion that they could not simply lift the curse. The very hill the house sat atop would likely crumble. 

Yet, for all of that, it wasn't a particularly complicated spell. They would have to be careful to work around it, yes, but it was not as impossible as Hecate feared it might be. Hecate furiously took notes, copied down the spell, copied down the description of Pippa's estate, wrote out all of the thoughts she was having and all of the theories that might work. A few students came through and gave her an odd look, likely wondering why she was surrounded by paper and wasn't using the latest version of maglet available. She was not a Luddite, she had simply always worked better in longhand with her ideas spread around her. 

The rush she felt with new knowledge almost allowed her to forget about the truly monstrous headache building behind her eyes but as the fervor ended, the headache reasserted itself. She looked out the window and realized she had spent all day in the library without a break. Perhaps she was simply hungry and eating something would make the pain go away. She packed up all of her papers and exited the library. There was a small cafe near the school that she knew from previous research trips. She sent Pippa a maglet message telling her not to wait on her for dinner then headed to the cafe. 

Her meal was simple but filling and she allowed her mind to wander while she ate. She felt restless, eager to return home to Pippa. She just wanted to be near the other woman, to feel Pippa's hand in hers. Despite the food, her headache was getting increasingly worse and she started to fear that if she didn't leave soon, she would be in too much pain to fly in a straight line. Worse, her stomach has started to roil and she thought maybe the food wasn't the best idea after all. 

She paid her bill and took off directly from the cafe's courtyard.

* * *

Pippa saw Hecate set down on the back patio and sighed in relief. Despite her message, Pippa had been starting to worry. It didn't help that she had been fighting off a headache all day. She was grumpy and it was good there was no one around to be subject to her mood. Hecate's return had wiped all of that away. She opened the back door to allow Hecate entrance. As Hecate walked by her, Pippa couldn't stop herself from reaching out a hand and capturing Hecate's fingers with her own. Hecate was carrying more tension in her shoulders and neck than Pippa could ever recall and it looked painful. Yet as soon as they touched Hecate seemed to relax. The tension was still there but it looked more tolerable now. Pippa wanted to soothe it away entirely though. 

"Did you find anything?" Pippa asked as she followed Hecate into the house. Their fingers were still intertwined. They made their way into the comfiest of the parlors, the one with a large, soft leather couch that Pippa liked to nap on as a teenager. When Hecate sat, Pippa sat next to her, their knees coming to rest together. 

"Quite a bit. Someone saw fit to write down the actual spell. It's in Old English, so I'll have to do a proper translation, but it looks easy enough to circumvent." 

"That sounds marvelous." Pippa squeezed their fingers together. "You look like you've gotten the worse end of a broomstick though." Pippa rubbed the back of Hecate's hand. "If you turn around, I'll rub your shoulders for you." Pippa was already tugging Hecate around and rather than protesting, Hecate allowed Pippa to manhandle her into the proper position. 

"I've had the worst headache all day," Hecate said as Pippa started to dig her fingers into Hecate's shoulder muscles. With each pass of Pippa's fingers, Hecate relaxed a little more. 

"Strange, I have too." Pippa moved her hands to Hecate's neck, scratching lightly at her hairline. Hecate shivered but didn't pull away. Pippa used her fingers to dig into the knots she found, and there were plenty of them. "Nothing I took did a bit of good." 

Hecate hummed in response while she reveled in the feeling of Pippa's fingers on her skin. She whimpered quietly at the loss when Pippa moved from her neck back to her shoulders. Pippa wished that she could run her hands over that skin too, just knowing that it would make both of them feel better, feel more settled. She unzipped the top of Hecate's dress without thinking or asking but Hecate didn't protest. 

"Oh," she gasped as she placed her hands flat on Hecate's back. Suddenly everything felt right again. She went back to pressing into Hecate's knots focusing on smoothing out each one before she moved onto the next. Hecate's skin warmed and relaxed under her hands. She maneuvered around Hecate's bra strap as she worked her way down Hecate's back. If the tips of her fingers brushed against the sides of Hecate's breasts, it wasn't on purpose but the ways Hecate shuddered made her want to do something intentionally. She was in the center of Hecate's back when she couldn't stop herself anymore. She leaned forward and placed her lips against one of Hecate's shoulder blades. The kiss only lasted a second but it sent a bolt of lightning through Pippa's nervous system. Hecate moaned as if Pippa had done something far more explicit. 

They both froze. 

Pippa experimentally kissed Hecate's back again. Hecate shuddered but didn't pull away. Pippa started to rub Hecate's back again as she peppered kisses across it. After a minute, she was no longer content with the skin already exposed to her. She started to push Hecate's dress off of her shoulders. If asked, she supposed she could say that she was merely making it easier to massage Hecate's back but it was a thin excuse. She kept waiting for Hecate to stop them, to object, but it never came and suddenly Hecate's dress was pooled around her hips. Pippa rested her hands on Hecate's waist as she stared at Hecate's back. It was nothing to unfasten her bra and push it out of the way as well. 

Hecate started trembling as Pippa reached around her and palmed Hecate's breasts. Her nipples were hard against Pippa's hands. Pippa squeezed Hecate's breasts lightly as her kisses turned open-mouthed. Hecate whimpered and pressed back against Pippa's mouth. Her breathing turned ragged. 

What were they doing? Pippa didn't have a clue but she didn't want to stop. She brushed her thumbs over Hecate's nipples and Hecate finally moved. She brought her hands up to Pippa's and gripped her wrists but she didn't pull Pippa's hands away. Pippa kept touching her, kept kissing her. Hecate leaned backward into Pippa and Pippa was happy to hold her up. She moved her lips to Hecate's neck. Hecate tugged at Pippa's wrist, pulling her hand down her torso and over her stomach and hips, guiding Pippa to where she needed her touch the most. 

Pippa pushed her fingers down under the waist of Hecate's dress and knickers, felt her pubic hair, slid her fingers between Hecate's lips. She gasped when she felt how wet Hecate was. It echoed around the room. She slid her fingers over Hecate's clit and Hecate shuddered in her arms. 

"Please," she whispered and Pippa nuzzled against Hecate's neck. 

"Anything you want," Pippa whispered back. This was overwhelming. Pippa was overwhelmed. She wanted… She wanted everything. She needed to focus on Hecate. She kept sliding her fingers over Hecate's clit. Hecate's hips bucked under her touch. Pippa's breathing deepened while Hecate's became more shallow. Hecate shuddered again and Pippa just knew she was close. She redoubled her efforts and soon had a gasping, shaking Hecate in her arms. She stroked Hecate's clit until she calmed then slowly withdrew her hand. She kept her arms around Hecate. 

"Please don't run away," Pippa pleaded as she held on tighter. All she could do was imagine Hecate running away from her and she didn't want that to happen. She knew she couldn't really prevent Hecate from transferring, but maybe holding her close would be enough. 

"I…" Hecate took a deep breath. "I think we should go to bed." Pippa nodded and knew that whatever had happened between them wouldn't be continued when they got there. Still, she transferred them to the bedroom and concealed her disappointment. 

As soon as the transfer was complete, Hecate removed herself from Pippa's arms. She crossed her arms over her chest and swiftly flicked a hand to put her nightgown on. Another flick and her hair was down. Pippa sighed quietly as she watched Hecate ready herself for bed. As soon as Hecate turned around, Pippa averted her eyes. She got up from where she was perched on the edge of the bed and magicked on her nightgown as well. 

They got into the bed in silence, Hecate staying as far on her own side as possible. A whispered goodnight later and Hecate rolled onto her side away from Pippa and dimmed her light. Pippa had no real choice but to dim her light as well and try to sleep. That sleep was a long time coming.


	2. Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hecate and Pippa deal with the awkward aftermath of having sex on Pippa's couch.
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hecate rubbed her forehead and leaned back in her chair. Maybe a walk would help settle her mind. 
> 
> The door to the office opened before Hecate had a chance to make good on her plan and Pippa walked in. She looked weary and Hecate was immediately concerned. She hadn't thought to ask how Pippa's spellcasting was going. Things had progressed so quickly the night before. All she remembered was Pippa complaining of a headache. Still, despite her apparent fatigue, Pippa walked into the room with a lightness Hecate could never hope to mimic. 
> 
> Pippa closed the door then clasped her hands together as she stood in front of it. "I think we should talk about what happened last night."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic hasn't gone entirely into hibernation. I'm not super happy with how this chapter has turned out but I need to move on if I'm ever going to get this fic finished! 
> 
> You'll notice that we've gone from 3 chapters to 4 too.

Hecate sat at the chair in her office, both spells spread out in front of her, but she wasn't getting anything accomplished. She hadn't gotten anything accomplished all morning. She was stuck on what had happened between her and Pippa the night before. They had… well… It was the closest to sex Hecate had come in years and she didn't know what had gotten into her. Certainly, she was attracted to Pippa, she had been for a long time, but she had never intended to act on her feelings. Not that she had been the one to act when it came down to it. What did it mean that Pippa had initiated things? Hecate had been turning it over and over in her mind for hours. She wished she could just get away for a few hours but that felt too much like shirking her responsibilities. Pippa expected that she was finding a way to counter the spell on the house, so that was what she needed to be doing. 

Hecate rubbed her forehead and leaned back in her chair. Maybe a walk would help settle her mind. 

The door to the office opened before Hecate had a chance to make good on her plan and Pippa walked in. She looked weary and Hecate was immediately concerned. She hadn't thought to ask how Pippa's spellcasting was going. Things had progressed so quickly the night before. All she remembered was Pippa complaining of a headache. Still, despite her apparent fatigue, Pippa walked into the room with a lightness Hecate could never hope to mimic. 

Pippa closed the door then clasped her hands together as she stood in front of it. "I think we should talk about what happened last night." 

Hecate shifted in her seat. She should have expected this, expected that Pippa wouldn't be content pretending that it hadn't happened. Oh, how Hecate wished they could pretend though, could avoid this conversation. 

"I'm not sure what we have to talk about," Hecate said. She shuffled a few of the papers in front of her. She doubted she could put Pippa off the conversation, but she wanted to try. Pippa pursed her lips and looked at Hecate sternly. 

"I'm not going to let you ignore this. We had sex last night. We had sex on my couch in a sitting room three doors down from this office and now you want to pretend that it didn't happen. Well, I'm not going to let you. If we don't talk about it, things are just going to get awkward between us and I refuse to let that happen."

Hecate looked down at the desktop then back up at Pippa. "I don't know how you want me to respond to you." 

"I don't know. Tell me what you're thinking. Tell me what you're feeling. At least acknowledge that it happened," Pippa pleaded. 

Hecate looked down at her hands where they were holding on to the edge of the desk. "It shouldn't have happened. I… It was a long day. It shouldn't have happened." Hecate couldn't meet Pippa's eyes. Pippa may have started it, but Hecate had escalated it and she couldn't believe she had let herself get so out of hand. Just because she wanted something… She was certain Pippa regretted it even if Hecate had mixed feelings about the incident. She didn't exactly regret it, but she did regret that it was the closest she would ever come to having anything intimate with Pippa. 

Pippa nodded. "If that's the way you feel, then I respect that." Pippa looked less than happy but Hecate didn't know what to say to appease her. 

"I…" Hecate swallowed. "I do." 

"Then we'll put this behind us." Pippa walked around the desk and took one of Hecate's hands. "But I'm not going to let you avoid me. You're still my best friend." 

Hecate squeezed Pippa's hand in return. Her eyes got caught on the ring on Pippa's finger. She looked to the matching ring on her own. "You're my best friend as well." If Pippa weren't her best friend, they wouldn't be in this situation to begin with.

"Good. Now, I've got to go walk the perimeter of the property with a potion I've been brewing the past few days." Pippa placed her hand over Hecate's and rubbed the back of it. "I just wanted to let you know where I've gone." 

"And what do you do with this potion after you take it on a hike?" Hecate asked. It was an unusual step in potion brewing. 

"Apparently I drink it." Pippa smiled in mirth like the entire affair was an adventure. "Something about tying me to the land or tying the land to me. The spell is a bit iffy on the details."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Hecate looked at Pippa with a skeptical expression on her face. It couldn't possibly end well. 

Pippa shrugged. "It doesn't really matter, does it? I still have to do it to keep the estate safe. And besides, generations of Pentangles have done it, so what could possibly go wrong?" 

"Do you want me to look over the potion for you? The spell might have an alternate interpretation," Hecate offered. 

"You have enough to do." Pippa let go of Hecate's hand. "Now, I'll stop distracting you and let you continue your translating. And it's your turn to make dinner." 

Hecate gave Pippa a small smile to acknowledge the responsibility. Pippa smiled back then transferred away.

* * *

Hecate barely looked up from her work as the light from the windows dimmed with the coming of the storm. She turned on another lamp before turning the page in her reference book. Galdorleóþ could mean any number of things and she wanted to make sure she was choosing the right one for her translation. It might mean charm or enchantment but was just as likely to mean song, which meant the curse might be a chant. Normally, the words used for 'spell' were in the feminine, but this one wasn't. There had to be some sort of significance. Maybe it was a chant meant to be sung by witches and wizards together. As with so many other magical traditions, the strict gender roles around chanting weren't set in the 9th century. 

Hecate rubbed her forehead in frustration. She had set aside the marriage spell for the time being to focus on the curse on the land since they needed to understand that before they could proceed, but it was proving to be trickier than she had hoped. Thunder clapped behind her and she looked up in annoyance. As far as she knew, Pippa wasn't back yet and storm looked like it was only gaining strength. It made Hecate uneasy, but Pippa was capable of taking care of herself. She went back to her studies and let them absorb her once again.

* * *

Pippa looked up at the sky as it grew cloudier and cloudier. Rain hadn't been in the forecast but apparently, the forecast was wrong. Still, she was almost finished with her circuit of the property and a little rain wouldn't stop her. She trudged onward even as the rain started. It was nothing to cast a protective spell over herself as she walked along the edge of the steep embankment of the stream that bounded that edge of the estate. Still, she wished she could have flown the circuit rather than walk it. If she had, the task would have been long over. Thunder clapped overhead and she reinforced her protective spell. She walked on and on for what felt like hours, but she knew little more than half an hour had passed. 

Just around the curve and the house would be in view again. The rain picked up, coming down now in torrents. Her feet started to sink down into the mud as she walked. Even with the spell, the entire situation was becoming more miserable by the minute. 

Pippa stepped just around the bend in the stream when her feet slipped out from under her. She tried to catch herself but only ended up overbalancing and sliding, then tumbling, down the embankment. The brambles for which the house was named came up to catch at her clothing and scratch at her skin. As she hit her head on a rock, her last thought was of Hecate.

* * *

Hecate was just getting up to start dinner when she realized Pippa still hadn't returned from her circuit of the estate. Her worry increased as she started to assemble ingredients. The storm shouldn't have delayed Pippa this long. Hecate looked out of the window as if she might catch sight of Pippa in the distance but the rain made it impossible. 

Out of nowhere, she suddenly heard Pippa call her name. It was as if Pippa was standing right next to her and she sounded panicked. Without thinking, Hecate transferred directly to Pippa. She wasn't prepared for the onslaught of rain or the fact that she was standing in water up to her shins. A quick spell created a protective bubble around her and kept the rain away. She wiped the water from her eyes and started looking for Pippa. She quickly scanned the area. 

There she was! Hecate rushed over to the mud-covered figure lying on the ground a few feet away. It took only a brief look to see that Pippa was unconscious. Hecate's fingers sought out a pulse and she let out a deep sigh when she found one, steady and strong. She carefully looked over Pippa and other than torn clothing and some deep scrapes, she didn't see any other damage. Still, she was unconscious and that couldn't be good. Hecate pulled Pippa into her arms and transferred them back to the house.

* * *

Pippa came to with a sharp breath and a pounding headache. She started to sit up only to be stopped by Hecate's hand on her shoulders. 

"Easy," Hecate said as she guided Pippa back down into the bed. Pippa winced. 

"What happened?" she asked as she brought a hand up to her head to rub at it. 

"I'm not entirely sure. It looked like you fell and hit your head, but that's only an assumption." Hecate sat on the edge of the bed. "I've just gotten you back to the house." 

Pippa looked down at her wet, mud-sodden clothing and shivered. It was just starting to penetrate, how cold she was lying there on top of the bed. 

"We need to get you cleaned up and into something warm and dry." Hecate wrung her hands together as she looked down at Pippa. "May I remove your clothing? Then we can heal the worst of the scratches." 

"I've nothing you haven't seen before, though probably a bit more bruised." Pippa cracked a small smile and shifted upright in the bed. She was much more mindful about her injuries this time. Hecate pursed her lips. She waved a hand and made Pippa's clothing disappear and then reappear draped over a side chair. Pippa, she could heal, she wasn't so sure about the dress. 

Scratches made angry red lines across Pippa's torso, legs, and arms. Hecate found the worst of them and started to chant over them. She felt an odd boost to her powers as the cuts healed much more rapidly than she was accustomed to. Pippa hissed in pain and Hecate looked up. 

"I'd forgotten how much that stings when you don't use a potion" Pippa shook her head and gritted her teeth while Hecate finished her chant. As she finished, the scratches all closed up and the mottle of already forming bruises receded. 

"Yes, well, I thought expediency preferable in this instance." Hecate moved uncomfortably in place. They both flinched when thunder rumbled through the room. It seemed the storm hadn't let up. Pippa reached out and placed a hand on Hecate's arm. 

"That wasn't a criticism, merely an observation." Pippa squeezed Hecate's arm then tugged on it lightly. "Come lie down with me. I still feel like I've taken quite the tumble." Pippa didn't know where her boldness was coming from but Hecate hadn't pulled away. 

"I should really go finish preparing dinner." Hecate looked toward the door to the bedroom but her heart wasn't in it. 

"Dinner can wait for a bit." Pippa tugged on Hecate's arm again. 

"If you insist," Hecate waved a hand and they were both in their clean and dry night things. Pippa sighed in contentment as she felt Hecate come to rest at her side. Pippa reached for Hecate's arm and tugged it around her waist before she rolled closer to Hecate. She let out a small moan as her body protested but it didn't hurt enough to dissuade her from her quest to get as close to Hecate as possible. Finally, she tucked herself under Hecate's chin and snuggled in.

* * *

"This is starting to become a habit and I don't know that I like it," Pippa called out as she slowly sat up on the edge of the bed. 

"What's that?" Hecate asked as she emerged from the bathroom. It was edging on 10 pm but Pippa looked much better than she had earlier in the evening. It seemed her rest had done her good. 

"I go to sleep in your arms and then somehow end up alone when I wake up." Pippa held out a hand. Hecate took it and allowed Pippa to pull her to stand between her legs.

"I thought I'd draw you a bath." Hecate looked down at Pippa and brushed some hair back from her face. The storm seemed to have blown itself out and everything in the room felt pleasantly warm and soft as if the two of them were wrapped up in a cocoon together. It scared Hecate, this sudden closeness, but she felt no need to fight against it. She liked being so close to Pippa. 

"That sounds lovely." Pippa guided Hecate backward enough for her to have room to stand. "Everything hurts." 

"You should get into the bath. It will help with the soreness." Hecate stepped back to allow Pippa to pass her. She wanted to keep a hand on Pippa but she didn't. She needed to let Pippa go. It wasn't her place to hover over her while she took a bath.

* * *

Pippa sank into the hot water and sighed in relief. She could tell by the way her aches immediately started to feel better that Hecate had imbued the water with some sort of magic. Leave it to Hecate to treat a bath like an oversized potion. She knew no one would believe her if she tried to tell them just how thoughtful Hecate could be. 

She leaned back and let herself float in the water in the oversized tub. It was more than big enough for two and she felt a pang as she wished Hecate would join her, wished that they had that sort of relationship. She had known, she had _known_ as it was happening that it wouldn't lead where she wanted it to, wouldn't lead to a scenario where she got to have Hecate in her arms, got to wake up with her every day, got to revel in the feeling of their bodies moving together. 

Her body felt over-charged. Something under her skin vibrated with an energy that could only be matched, be quelled, by Hecate, and that was never going to happen. Not now. Not after she had ruined everything by acting so impulsively the night before. 

She dunked her head under the water and tried to focus on the way her muscles felt looser. She was lucky she hadn't suffered any more serious effects of her fall, lucky that Hecate had come looking for her, lucky that Hecate was so adept at healing magic that she now appeared to be completely unaffected. She was lucky to have as much of Hecate as she had been granted. She shouldn't wish for more but she couldn't help it. 

Pippa sighed and rested her head against the edge of the tub. It simply wasn't meant to be.

* * *

Hecate started at the door to bathroom knowing that Pippa was just on the other side of it. Whenever she was close to Pippa, something seemed to come over her that demanded she be closer still. It wouldn't lead to anything good. She couldn't get used to this. Eventually, they would break the spell and all of this would end. They would go back to their respective schools, their respective lives, and Hecate would end up heartbroken. It seemed she would end up that way no matter what happened. 

For lack of anything else to do, Hecate sat at the vanity and started to brush her hair out. She needed to return to the kitchen to put away the things she had pulled out for dinner. They would have to eat something. Omelets were easy enough and could be eaten in bed. 

Hecate put the brush down, stood, and transferred to the kitchen.

* * *

Standing at the stove cooking, Hecate heard something behind her and looking over her shoulder, she saw Pippa. "How are you feeling?" she asked as she folded over the first omelet and slid it onto a plate. She sat the plate aside for Pippa. 

"Much better." Pippa stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Hecate's waist hugging her from behind. It was merely supposed to be a friendly hug. It didn't feel friendly though. She rested her head on Hecate's shoulder blade. The leather of Hecate's dressing down was cool against her cheek and she could smell the scent of mint that Hecate carried with her everywhere. She flattened her palms against Hecate's stomach. "Thank you." 

Pippa nuzzled against Hecate's back and Hecate's breath caught in her throat. "Pippa?" Hecate questioned. 

"Hmmm?" Pippa moved her hands to the belt of Hecate's robe and started to untie it. Hecate shuddered and turned the stove off before she covered Pippa's hands with her own then turned in her arms. Her untied robe hung open. Somehow Pippa's hands ended up underneath it pressed against her stomach feeling it rise and fall as Hecate's breathed. Pippa stared at Hecate's collarbones. 

"Pippa," Hecate said again, really more an exhalation than a word. "What…?" 

Pippa flicked her eyes up to meet Hecate's with a blush on her cheeks. "I'm sorry. I can't seem to stop myself." She tried to pull her hands away but Hecate tightened her grip on Pippa's hands and kept them where they were. 

"I…" Hecate licked her lips and swallowed. "I don't mind," she said more bravely than she generally knew how to be. But Pippa's hands felt like they belonged against her, touching her. "I know I said… but…" But she wanted. Wanting was dangerous. It led to disappointment. Still, she couldn't stop. 

Pippa slowly leaned in and brought her lips to Hecate's. Something about the kiss felt inevitable and Hecate's mind reeled. She opened her mouth and felt Pippa's tongue move across her lips. It was nothing to wrap her arms around Pippa and pull her closer. The press of Pippa's lips against her own left her feeling foggy and off-balance. Pippa deepened the kiss and Hecate pulled her in tighter. She couldn't stop herself. She didn't know how. 

Pippa surged forward and pinned Hecate against the stove. The pan clattered behind them but neither stopped to set it to rights. The knobs pushed uncomfortably into Hecate's back but she didn't care. Kissing Pippa was more important. With a little force, Hecate switched their positions, the counter at Pippa's back instead of the stove. As they got more and more wrapped up in the kiss, Hecate pushed harder against Pippa. She felt like she was drowning in Pippa's kisses. 

Pippa wrapped her arms around Hecate's neck as she finally broke away from the kiss and tried to catch her breath. 

"This is a terrible idea," Pippa whispered as much to herself as to Hecate. Hecate swallowed against the lump in her throat. Pippa was right: it was a terrible idea. Why didn't she care? She wanted to take Pippa to bed anyway. 

"I know," Hecate replied. Her forehead rested against Pippa's, her nose brushed Pippa's cheek. "I…" she stuttered. "I want…" 

"I do too." Pippa's eyes met hers and Hecate saw her own desire reflected there. 

"We should eat our omelets and go to bed. To sleep." Hecate rubbed her thumbs over Pippa's ribs and Pippa shivered. 

"Could you go to sleep right now?" Pippa scratched at Hecate's scalp. Hecate closed her eyes against the pleasure. 

"No," Hecate said as she opened her eyes again. 

"I want you, Hecate. I want you more than I've ever wanted anyone. I don't want whatever that was last night to be the only time I get to touch you. I want to feel you moving underneath me. I want to make you come apart." 

Hecate swallowed again. She closed her eyes only to open them barely a moment later. "I want that too," she breathed. She wanted it so badly. This wasn't going to end well, but she couldn't stop herself. "Pippa…"

"I'm going to transfer us to our bedroom now." Pippa didn't choose her words deliberately, but it felt right. Their bedroom. Hecate nodded, and a second later they were standing beside the bed just as close as they had been in the kitchen. 

"Are you sure?" Pippa asked as she reached up to Hecate's shoulders and started to push her robe down her arms. 

"No." Hecate swallowed as she let the robe drop. "Are you?" Her mind reeled at what was about to happen. 

"No." Pippa brought their lips together again and Hecate didn't want to think about it anymore. Pippa wore satin to sleep in, but as good as it felt under Hecate's hands, Hecate knew Pippa's skin would feel better. Hecate reached down for the hem of Pippa's too short nightgown and following the curve of Pippa's hips, started lifting it up. She finally felt skin under her palms for the first time and her breathing stuttered. 

"Pippa…" Hecate nuzzled against Pippa's cheek as she kept lifting Pippa's nightgown. Finally, Pippa put her arms over her head and let Hecate pull it off. Hecate tossed it aside, not caring where it landed. She cupped Pippa's ass in her hands and used it to pull Pippa closer. 

Pippa whined and Hecate pulled away slightly. 

"You too," Pippa demanded as she reached for Hecate's nightgown. Hecate didn't have the patience required to wait while Pippa helped her remove her own clothing. She simply made it vanish. Then they were touching skin to skin and Hecate couldn't breathe. She guided Pippa back toward the bed and down onto it. 

Pippa looped her arms around Hecate's neck. "I need you to touch me, Hecate. I need you to touch me."

Hecate kissed Pippa hard as she laid down next to Pippa. For the rest of the night, she did everything she could to fulfill Pippa's every request.

* * *

Pippa awoke all at once and inhaled sharply. She lifted her head from where it was pillowed on Hecate's shoulder. Was it a dream? It was only looking down and seeing a very naked Hecate that convinced her that it wasn't. Hecate's eyes fluttered open and she looked up at Pippa. They went wide and Pippa watched her connect the dots. 

Before she could get too wrapped up in her thoughts, Pippa leaned down and caught Hecate's lips in a kiss. It lasted for what felt like hours but could only have been a few minutes. 

"Do you feel different today?" Hecate brought a hand up and twined it through Pippa's hair. Pippa's eyes fluttered closed as she reveled in the sensation. 

"I feel happy." Pippa nuzzled against Hecate's cheek. 

"That isn't… Something feels different." Despite the caution in her tone, Hecate did nothing to stop Pippa as she started kissing Hecate's neck. If anything, she encouraged it. Still, now that Hecate had pointed it out, something did feel different, more settled. Some underlying anxiety she hadn't realized she was feeling was gone now. Pippa stopped kissing Hecate's neck and settled on her shoulder again. 

"I know what you mean." She pressed her palm against Hecate's stomach. It was almost unsettling how right everything suddenly felt. She expected to have more reservations about what had happened between them. She did have reservations. It was just hard to care about them when Hecate's skin was pressed against her skin and her whole body felt sated in a way that it hadn't in years, maybe ever. 

Hecate curved her arm around Pippa's back. "What do we do now?" she asked. 

"I don't know." Pippa didn't know exactly how this would change their relationship, but she knew it would change. "I suppose we get up and carry on with our days. I need to finish carrying the potion around the edges of the property and you still have translating to do." Pippa drew nonsensical patterns on Hecate's skin with her fingers. She wasn't quite ready to get up yet. 

"Where does that leave us?" Hecate had to ask the question that Pippa had been trying not to think about. She looked into Hecate's eyes, searched for what Hecate wanted the answer to be, but found nothing to help. 

"I don't know the answer to that either. I don't want to pretend this didn't happen. If you're… agreeable… I'd like for it to happen again. Though perhaps not right now as I'm a bit sore." Pippa smiled tentatively. 

"I'm sorry," Hecate said as she blushed, but Pippa put her fingers over Hecate's lips. 

"Don't be sorry. It was worth it." She replaced her fingers with her lips. Hecate responded to the kiss enthusiastically. She shifted their bodies until she was lying next to Pippa. She ran her hand down Pippa's side and Pippa shuddered. Pippa hooked her leg over Hecate's hip and used it to pull Hecate even closer. "Well, maybe if you're gentle," she said as she guided Hecate's hand back to her center. She was already wet again and with the utmost care, Hecate started touching her clit. 

"Goddess, Hecate," she exhaled. "Just like that." She closed her eyes and buried her face in Hecate's neck. It was a long time before they made it out of bed.

* * *

They fell into equilibrium after that morning. Hecate spent her days working on her translations while Pippa continued casting the protective spells on the estate. When they weren't working, they spent their time growing even closer together. It became normal to greet each other with a kiss, to touch each other without thought, to go to sleep at night wrapped in each other's arms. As the air outside grew warmer and warmer, they became more and more reluctant to be apart. Still, they both knew that the end of summer was approaching. Hecate would finish her translations, they would break the spell, and they would have to return to their respective schools.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments make my day!
> 
> I'm on tumblr @twtd11


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